


Autumn Equinox

by EmandEm



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Kinda, Light Angst, M/M, Suggestive Themes, They're soulmates destined to be apart, but nothing explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-01-31 03:11:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21439264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmandEm/pseuds/EmandEm
Summary: Mark is winter. Donghyuck is summer.They are soulmates destined to be apart.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan / Mark Lee
Comments: 5
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter 1: Donghyuck

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I've written a story since like the seventh grade, so please be gentle with me. That being said, constructive criticism is always welcome. I've read a lot of fanfiction these past few years, and I wanted to try my hand at writing one myself. I wrote the majority of this in a day because I was so excited to get it out, so it may be a little choppy and vague in some places (although there are some intentionally ambiguous elements), and I may edit it later. That being said, please enjoy!
> 
> Also, of course this is just fiction, please don't take anything here too seriously lol <3

The fields are bursting with almost ripe fruits and vegetables, that’s how the people know to brace themselves for the storm to come.

— 

He is summer days, rebellious spirits, and an all-consuming inferno of passion. He bestows upon his favorites warm summer breezes and fire upon anyone else. Summer is all-consuming and volatile, easy to please but equally quick to anger. Nothing can rival the might of the sun, yet the kingdom he builds is fragile, built upon shifting masses of sand and sea glass, beautiful to look at both whole and in ruins.

He is ice and snow, beautifully delicate and harshly indifferent. Winter encompasses all in an inescapable layer of glittering frost. Where summer is indecisive and fleeting, winter is blind and dispassionate, bordering on callous. Winter turns the wind into thorns as he sits on his icy throne, watching the land freeze and life die down, completely at his mercy.

Yet when the two meet, for an instant, there is a brilliant explosion of colors as the trees shed their leaves and the sun turns to gold, covering the world in brilliant amber: summer’s last show before the ice of winter sets in.

— 

He looked out the window and across his kingdom, relishing in the warmth of the sunlight bathing his land and the buzzing of life carried along by the wind. But summer can’t last forever, and eventually, even the sun must rest. He turns to look at his guards and the man kneeling on the ground before him.

“That was bold, even for you, Mark.”

The man kneeling on the ground tilted his head up, looking up at the king on his throne. He smiles, an almost imperceptible lift of the corners of his lips.

“Did you expect anything else, Donghyuck? This is only the, what, fourth time I’ve tried to kill you?”

— 

The first time Donghyuck saw Mark in person, he had cried. It was winter, and he was hiding in the crowd, watching the Winter Kingdom’s annual festival. They were both fairly naive at the time, yet he remembers the moment he saw Mark with crystal clarity. After all, it’s not every day that you meet your soulmate.

No, that’s not the right word.

Sure, everyone calls them soulmates, but “soulmate” implies closeness, a meeting of compatible souls. They were nothing but strangers; furthermore, they were opposites— fundamentally unable to coexist but cursed to be lovers. 

The year before, Donghyuck had received the mark of Summer, the brand of a golden sun emblazoned upon his right hip bone. Since then, he resented the man who would become his soulmate and condemn him to a life of longing and pain.

Seeing Mark, dragging his eyes across his sharp cheekbones, pitch black hair, and glittering crown made it all too real, so he fled. Of course, he had seen the man on television countless times, and he knew that this was coming, had been coming for all his life, but finally seeing Mark made it too real, and he ran. He knew that Mark had seen him, saw the spark of recognition in his eyes, and Donghyuck half expected (hoped) that Mark would run after him. But he didn’t, and Donghyuck cried alone with his back against the grimy alleyway wall while his guards looked for him in the city.

— 

It seems silly that Mark would try to kill Donghyuck himself, not send an assassin or someone else actually qualified to kill him. Perhaps it’s because they both know that his year attempt to kill Donghyuck is just for show. Or is it.

Because later, when Donghyuck finally caves and brings Mark to his bedroom from the dungeons, the searing heat from Mark’s hand around his throat really does make him feel like he’s dying.

— 

When Donghyuck was little, he had asked his mother, the Queen, about her relationship with the king of the Winter kingdom. Every so often, she would leave the Summer kingdom and go to the Winter kingdom for a day or so. When she returned, she would seem so _ sad _ and his dad, the royal consort of the Winter Kingdom would yell at her and be mad. At the time, she had smiled (sadly, he realizes now) and said that the king of the Winter Kingdom was her _ soulmate _, and that she had to go see him every so often. He wanted to ask what that meant, but she looked so tired that he didn’t have the heart to press.

As Donghyuck grew, he realized the true extent of his involvement, of his destiny.

Nobody wants to hear that they are _ meant _ to live their life wanting someone that they could never have. Of course, Donghyuck was reassured that he may not receive the mark at all, but Donghyuck was the embodiment of the sun itself. He was golden skin and rich brown hair; he was summers spent sunbathing on beaches and running through the forest. The mark on his hip was merely a formality.

The night before his eighteen birthday, Donghyuck had stayed awake the whole night, just waiting to see if he would get the mark. When he had, he knew that his life had ended. 

He had seen his destined, Mark, on television ever since Mark had received his mark on his eighteenth birthday. It’s not that Donghyuck disliked Mark as a person, no, he simply hated him.

— 

The second time they met, Donghyuck was more prepared — or so he believed. He wore a carefully crafted mask of indifference, intending to show Mark just how displeased he was with their situation, but of course, his feeble attempt at frost could never stand a chance against Mark’s snowstorm. So this was the man he was destined to be with. To fall apart from.

“I don’t like you,” Donghyuck blurts out, unapologetically (so maybe he didn’t mean it, but he’s _ summer _, he’s impulsiveness and summer flings). There is a moment of silence, and Mark smiles that icy half smile of his. 

“And you suppose _ I _do?”

“You could be nicer.”

“I’m the crown prince of the Winter Kingdom, I don’t know what you expected”

This was going badly. They were supposed to be soulmates yet they hated each other (or did they).

— 

Mark was always too rough, Donghyuck discovered their first year together. He pressed his fingers into his wrist too hard when he wanted to show Donghyuck something. He pushed him too hard when he wanted his attention. Donghyuck just wants to be treated gently, but he supposes that it’s his fault for irritating Mark in the first place.

Donghyuck doesn’t know when he started loving Mark.

Maybe it was when Mark pulled his chair out for him. Or when he had pet his hair their first night together. But of course, even Donghyuck knows that these things don’t make _ love _, so he concludes that this is the soulmate bond forcing them together.

Fate really does have a wicked sense of humor, linking the vital turn of the seasons to Mark and Donghyuck.

— 

There was something irresistible about giving him what he wanted, Donghyuck decided.

Bruises paint hips, teeth clash, and fingers grasp at hair, sheets, _ anything _. Rise and fall, push and pull, touching but not feeling. Mark may be winter, but his blood is red hot and his fingers burn their marks into Donghyuck, into his waist, his thighs, his soul. They fall together in a fiery explosion, then they fall apart, leaving Donghyuck to pick up the pieces.

Happiness is fleeting, Donghyuck rediscovers year after year. After his euphoric highs with Mark comes his lowest lows, and he stretches his hand out across his bed’s cold silk sheets, confirming what he already knew. Donghyuck sits up, feeling a satisfyingly soreness in his hips, as if hollow reassurance that Mark had really been there, had _ touched _ him. But even the burn of his muscles can’t stop the drop of his heart as he surveys the room and confirms that he is alone.

He looks outside of the window and surveys the explosion of fall and color outside.

Until the spring.


	2. Chapter 2: Mark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark's take on the story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this instead of studying for my finals next week, so kill me please :))
> 
> Also, this took a month to write because I am t r a s h, sorry about that, but APUSH and calc are going to be the death of me.
> 
> I tried to proof read this, but I know that my tenses are kinda off sometimes, so if you get confused about timeline or anything else, drop a comment or something lol. Enjoy!!

It’s not that Mark really tried to kill Donghyuck. Everyone knew that, and Mark’s yearly attempt is always a charade, Well, kinda. 

So maybe kill is a strong word, but Mark wants something to happen to Donghyuck because he couldn’t keep living(loving) like this. Maybe if Mark isn’t Mark and Donghyuck isn’t Donghyuck, they could work something out, but Donghyuck is too warm, and he ignits something inside Mark that will eventually melt and then he’ll be left with nothing.  
—  
Mark remembers resenting his brother. His brother, Taeyong, was born with the palest porcelain skin and sharpest features — the winter personified — he would have made a good king. But alas, he was not blessed (or cursed, depending on who you asked) with the mark of Winter, and the duty fell to the second son, Mark. Mark was always too warm, too genuine to be considered a true prince of Winter, not to even mention a possible King of Winter. As such, Taeyong often eclipsed him, and Mark fell into the shadows, wishing that he could be like his brother. When it was revealed on Taeyong’s eighteenth birthday that he didn’t receive the mark and thus wasn’t the destined, both the royal family and the public’s eye fell upon Mark, who was excited at the chance to finally step out of his brother’s shadow and prove himself, but even the glory of fame can’t overcome the crushing weight of responsibility.

Fame is both so much more and so much less than what he expected. He loved the attention, reveled in it, bathing under the warmth of others’ envy and admiration, at least for a little. And maybe he still does, but even the splendor of praise and worship gets heavy, and he’s tired; not the tired fixed with a long nap, but the kind that settles as a deep ache in his chest and a hollowing of his bones. Constantly reminded of sins he did not commit, even make-up can’t hide the gauntness of his cheeks, although he supposes that his new look is rather fitting for ice prince.

The day he catches his first glimpse of Donghyuck, he had woken up late. Pulled out of bed by frustrated servants, they all but threw him into his clothes then ushered over the makeup artist and hairstylist.

“How many times have I told you to dry your hair before going to bed?” the hair stylist scolded.

“These bags, you’re going to give me wrinkles before I turn 30,” the makeup artist mourns, only half joking, and Mark opens his mouth to apologize and explain that he couldn’t sleep because his head hurt and his bones felt like glass, but the words die on the tip of his tongue and he falls silent, closing his mouth. The makeup artist only shakes her head, mumbling under her breath and proceeding to slather concealer onto Mark’s face, but it was enough.

Sometimes, Mark remembers what it felt like to be a kid again. There’s something undeniably freeing about obscurity and low expectations, but the past can’t be undone and time marches onwards, aloof to the trials and tribulations of men.

Two years. Two long years filled with a kind of excited apprehension about meeting his better half. There’s something thrilling about getting to know a secret after years of waiting, so Mark had waited and abstained from looking up the Summer royal family (so maybe he couldn’t help himself a peaked a few times, but he hasn’t dared to scroll any farther than the tops of his golden hair, but that was enough).

The first time Mark saw Donghyuck in person, Mark was waving out into the crowd at the Winter ceremony when he saw a flash of honeyed skin out of the corner of his eye and he knew, both excited and ashamed that Donghyuck’s first impression of him will his bedraggled appearance, yet there was also a spark of excitement, that there really was someone made for him. He turned around, by the time he turned to look properly, Donghyuck was gone. Oh, so this is his destined. Any excitement he had felt about finally meeting his fated evaporated, and he was left with a deep yearning in his hands but a bitter taste on his tongue. That was the beginning.

—   
It is customary for each prince to visit the other’s kingdom and castle — something about union and trust, but it was really an excuse for each kingdom to hold a feast and get drunk.

Mark remembers seeing Donghyuck properly for the first time, and oh did he not disappoint (not that his soulmate could ever disappoint him, but his beautiful smile and fluffy hair exceeded all expectations, all limits set on the human race). He had already had several glasses of wine already, but even the slight blur in Mark’s vision couldn’t hide the fact Donghyuck stood out as he stood in the foyer of the Winter palace. He wasn’t tall, but he seemed bigger than he was, even standing under the castle’s arching roof of crystal chandeliers and hanging ice. There was something undeniably radiant about him, like he could single handedly melt the entire castle and Mark’s security along with it. 

Where Mark was shy and easily embarrassed, Donghyuck seemed to thrive, preening under the attention, flirting with all of the court’s ladies, and charming the elders. It wasn’t fair that he could immerse himself into the kingdom seamlessly, even when he looked so different from the rest of them. It wasn’t often that Mark felt envious of someone, the only other person being his brother, Mark realized suddenly, how ironic. Where Donghyuck was friendly and easily sociable, Mark was unintentionally cold and unapproachable — summer and winter.

Suddenly, Donghyuck tugged on his sleeve then leaned in to ask him, “So what would you do if someone caught you masturbating”.

Surprised and slightly embarrassed, Mark stuttered out flatly, “W-well I’d, I’d tell them to get out”.

Donghyuck had then leaned in, whispering in his ear, “What if I wanted to watch”, causing Mark to jerk away and Donghyuck to lean back as well.

Faintly, in the back of his head, Mark had realized that Donghyuck was flirting with him, albeit rather tactlessly, but flirting nonetheless. Donghyuck looked at Mark for a few seconds, before frowning slightly then turning back to the two ladies next to him, both of whom giggled, delighted to have his attention back on them.  
—   
After the formalities of their first meeting and appearances together, things slowed down significantly with both of them returning to their own kingdom. Days of dull paperwork and exhausting meeting with power-hungry lords consumed Mark’s life, yet he found Donghyuck taking up more and more of his thoughts. Heavens, even thinking about him hurt, acting on this core of longing deep inside of Mark until he couldn’t stand it anymore. When it came time for them to meet again, Mark was excited, or at least relieved to get to see the man he had been dreaming about for the past few weeks.

Donghyuck’s fun, Mark realized. He’s carefree, quick-witted, yet sensitive, and he makes it so easy for Mark to let go.

That is until his mother shot him an icy look that he doesn’t understand, at least until he sought out Taeyong, who pulled Mark’s head into his chest and held him. He whispered about public images and expectations, which Mark had known about of course, but who cares. Yet, looking at his brother’s face and seeing his bags and the tightness around his eyes made Mark think. After Taeyong had failed to receive the mark, the newspapers had all but slandered him, printing papers mocking him and his previously prized icy looks (if only he was as sharp as he looks, he probably has the intellect of a squash — or less, at least a squash is useful). Mark had never seen his brother this tired and vulnerable, and he can’t help but imagine the headlines if they saw how free he acted when he was with Donghyuck. 

Princes of ice are meant to reflect their kingdom, and in a kingdom of strength and ruthlessness, there is no room for emotion, so he puts on his mask of indifference and returns to Donghyuck’s side, stony faced.

— 

Looking up into Donghyuck after trying to kill him (again), Mark revels in his opportunity to finally admire his lover’s face. In the light of the dying sun, Donghyuck’s hair seems to form a halo around his head, and Mark almost laughs out loud at the irony. No, Donghyuck’s no angel, he’s the snake in the Garden, tempting him, mocking him.

It’s a well-rehearsed dance that they’ve established by now. This time, Mark is the winner (although, there really isn’t much to winning if the winner’s already been decided), and he presses Donghyuck into the bed, digging his hands into his hips as if to remind himself that just for one night, Donghyuck is his, and no one can take that away from him.

When the gold of the morning filtered through the window’s velvet curtains, Mark knows that it is time to go. He stands and detangles himself from the sheets, waking to the door, then pausing to lean against the edge of the doorway. He looks outside and admires the brilliantly colored fall foliage — Donghyuck always does have a flair for dramatics. He looks back inside at the bed where his lover laid, admiring the peaceful rise and fall of his chest, the gentle slope of his nose, and the rosy blush on his cheeks. Looking at him like this, he looks peaceful and innocent, and Mark almost wishes he could…. no. 

Donghyuck is many things, Mark decides. He’s… champagne bursting on his tongue, beautifully bright but ultimately sharp and fleeting, leaving a bad taste in his mouth. He’s sassy and quick witted, yet his lips are glossy and sweet, a delectably sharp contrast to his usual knowing grin. He’s sour grapefruit coated in sugar, tart lemonade on hot days, and the glint of sea glass buried in the sand. He’s a tiny hurricane of destruction contained in the delicate body of a human, and Mark is scared. Scared of being sucked into Donghyuck’s storm and torn to bits by the wind. 

So he leaves, at least until spring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the end of Autumn Equinox, I hope you've enjoyed!!?? :) And even if you haven't you've read until here so what does that say about you lol. Anyway, thanks for joining me on this story, and I hope to write more in the future <3

**Author's Note:**

> I will try to upload the next chapter soon, hopefully within the next few weeks, but APUSH is also kicking my ass, so no promises. That being said, I hope you enjoyed ;3


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